[Other Sport] Aussie Rules Football

[jamie-oh]

Fremantle were absolutely old skool dreadful on saturday, fair derailed my plans for finals and fun this season i cannot stand west coast, theyre such a bunch of pricks. I'm used to being the underdog in Perth - we have been since inception - and i know i should ignore the West Australian newspaper, theyre not even pretending to be biased, theyre a main sponsor of the Weagles ffs! - but it still annoys me.
gah.
Doggies on saturday, hopefully we can blow through the derby cobwebs!

 

[jamie-oh]

Meanwhile my Albion lookalike North Melbourne are getting killed by the equally winless and crap Hawthorn.
Any idea when North Melbourne might actually win a game?
Come on the Roos!

Adelaide and St Kilda the next two weeks for the Roos, and Essendon in about four weeks - i'd hope you'd win at least one of them!

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Like you guys, weekend mornings have become devoted to the AFL for me. Nothing better than sitting down with a coffee & watching the organised chaos of Aussie Rules while the family are still in bed. I may be a Carlton fan, but I enjoy watching whichever game is being shown.

I LOVE how old school it still seems compared to other sports...the uniforms have barely changed style in the 30+yrs since I first saw it on ch4, the ubiquitous mullets and mustaches are still on show, the way the umpires still signal a goal and do their "throw ins", the flags in the crowd, and the victory songs at full time, at full blast, for the winners....along with a sing-song amongst the team once they've left the field - all awesome. AFL have got it so RIGHT (imo), and it doesn't feel sterile like our football does these days...it feels like it belongs to the fans still. I even have a chuckle at the locker room views when they're sitting around on plastic garden chairs, compared to the multi million dollar locker rooms of the NFL etc. So cool & just so....NORMAL. Almost as if the Aussies have said a big F-U to complete modernization of the game.

One other thing I find awesome...? The players handing out mini signed footballs to the kids at the end. Can you imagine that in the EPL?

 

[BadFish]

Like you guys, weekend mornings have become devoted to the AFL for me. Nothing better than sitting down with a coffee & watching the organised chaos of Aussie Rules while the family are still in bed. I may be a Carlton fan, but I enjoy watching whichever game is being shown.

I LOVE how old school it still seems compared to other sports...the uniforms have barely changed style in the 30+yrs since I first saw it on ch4, the ubiquitous mullets and mustaches are still on show, the way the umpires still signal a goal and do their "throw ins", the flags in the crowd, and the victory songs at full time, at full blast, for the winners....along with a sing-song amongst the team once they've left the field - all awesome. AFL have got it so RIGHT (imo), and it doesn't feel sterile like our football does these days...it feels like it belongs to the fans still. I even have a chuckle at the locker room views when they're sitting around on plastic garden chairs, compared to the multi million dollar locker rooms of the NFL etc. So cool & just so....NORMAL. Almost as if the Aussies have said a big F-U to complete modernization of the game.

One other thing I find awesome...? The players handing out mini signed footballs to the kids at the end. Can you imagine that in the EPL?

You are spot on, it does feel old school. We even have a terrace down here in Geelong.

The players are very accessible too, open training sessions and school visits etc. Might be because I am in Geelong and we only have one team of course. I played football (real, round ball) against Cameron Ling (triple premiership player for Geelong the other week and have had interactions with a fair few players through teaching, schools and one thing and another.

Can't imagine its similar in the UK with premier league players.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Like you guys, weekend mornings have become devoted to the AFL for me. Nothing better than sitting down with a coffee & watching the organised chaos of Aussie Rules while the family are still in bed. I may be a Carlton fan, but I enjoy watching whichever game is being shown.

I LOVE how old school it still seems compared to other sports...the uniforms have barely changed style in the 30+yrs since I first saw it on ch4, the ubiquitous mullets and mustaches are still on show, the way the umpires still signal a goal and do their "throw ins", the flags in the crowd, and the victory songs at full time, at full blast, for the winners....along with a sing-song amongst the team once they've left the field - all awesome. AFL have got it so RIGHT (imo), and it doesn't feel sterile like our football does these days...it feels like it belongs to the fans still. I even have a chuckle at the locker room views when they're sitting around on plastic garden chairs, compared to the multi million dollar locker rooms of the NFL etc. So cool & just so....NORMAL. Almost as if the Aussies have said a big F-U to complete modernization of the game.

One other thing I find awesome...? The players handing out mini signed footballs to the kids at the end. Can you imagine that in the EPL?

Always find it slightly amusing that the goal scoring final third tactics is still largely of the 'hoof it to the big bloke up front' variety. Or even the little bloke up front. Unsurprisingly it fails more often than not

 

[BadFish]

Always find it slightly amusing that the goal scoring final third tactics is still largely of the 'hoof it to the big bloke up front' variety. Or even the little bloke up front. Unsurprisingly it fails more often than not

Yep, then if you can get yourself another big bloke or two to go alongside your big bloke, your set. We base our whole game on two brilliant big forwards. And another okay one, most of the time.

It really doesn't go much beyond get your big bloke in the middle to tap down the bounce to some little fast blokes, get them to handball it or kick it though the midfield and then punt one up to your big blokes at up the ground who either mark it and kick a goal or knock it down to some fast little blokes to score on the run.

Years ago teams did some different tactical stuff with more 'possession' handballing it to better positions to put more accurate kicks in. Then there was some zonal stuff 'flooding' to block the long kick recipient and handballing through the midfield. The game saw less goals and got boring so they combated this by changing the rules to start and even number of players in each areas. This means we are back to some fast skills and long kicks to the big lad, more go's, more marks and more excitement. As it always was.

I guess having no one else playing it means they can change the rules whenever the coaches do stuff that ruins the excitement. George Graham wouldn't have lasted long over here.

 

[jamie-oh]

Like you guys, weekend mornings have become devoted to the AFL for me. Nothing better than sitting down with a coffee & watching the organised chaos of Aussie Rules while the family are still in bed. I may be a Carlton fan, but I enjoy watching whichever game is being shown.

I LOVE how old school it still seems compared to other sports...the uniforms have barely changed style in the 30+yrs since I first saw it on ch4, the ubiquitous mullets and mustaches are still on show, the way the umpires still signal a goal and do their "throw ins", the flags in the crowd, and the victory songs at full time, at full blast, for the winners....along with a sing-song amongst the team once they've left the field - all awesome. AFL have got it so RIGHT (imo), and it doesn't feel sterile like our football does these days...it feels like it belongs to the fans still. I even have a chuckle at the locker room views when they're sitting around on plastic garden chairs, compared to the multi million dollar locker rooms of the NFL etc. So cool & just so....NORMAL. Almost as if the Aussies have said a big F-U to complete modernization of the game.

One other thing I find awesome...? The players handing out mini signed footballs to the kids at the end. Can you imagine that in the EPL?

The players are approachable. To be fair with ten teams in/near Melbourne, if you hang around in the popular areas (CBD, Carlton Lygon Street, down the main street in St Kilda) you absolutely will see players out and about. Fremantle used to have receptions after our games in melbourne that were open for fans to attend, so i had a few beers with our old coach Chrissie Connolly, and worked at a pub that Collingwood legend Peter Daicos occasionally drank in - he's a lovely fella

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

This week's telly matches

 

[BadFish]

The Cats V Carlton is going to be a big game. A real indicator of where the Cats are at this season. If . . . . big IFFF we can beat the Blues at the G, I may start to get a little excited. (Notwithstanding the length of season left to go and the likely hood of injuries to an aging squad - Chris Scott said last week though that we had a big list and he was expecting to use it all this season).

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

 

[jamie-oh]

The Cats V Carlton is going to be a big game. A real indicator of where the Cats are at this season. If . . . . big IFFF we can beat the Blues at the G, I may start to get a little excited. (Notwithstanding the length of season left to go and the likely hood of injuries to an aging squad - Chris Scott said last week though that we had a big list and he was expecting to use it all this season).

Seems a bit harsh to move a Cats home game away from Skilled/kardinia/whatever its called these days and have it at the G, when Carlton will be able to bring along 50k 'away' fans: do they have to host a couple of home games at the G every season? They have a great home ground advantage, seems dumb to potentially miss out on that!

 

[BadFish]

Seems a bit harsh to move a Cats home game away from Skilled/kardinia/whatever its called these days and have it at the G, when Carlton will be able to bring along 50k 'away' fans: do they have to host a couple of home games at the G every season? They have a great home ground advantage, seems dumb to potentially miss out on that!

Yes I think it is three games at the G these days. Against the better supported teams.
But we can't have the AFL missing out on money can we?

Its even more annoying at finals time!

Still given that not everyone plays each other twice. That aspect of fairness isn't baked in to the competition.

This is of course offset by being able to see your team at the G and it gives the players the experience they need to go deeper into finals.

 

[BadFish]

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Bring it on Blue Baggers.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

You could here a pin drop at the MCG during the moving ANZAC ceremony. Respect

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

FFS Pies! 4 goals down after 7 minutes

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Game nicely poised at HT - Essendon 48 Pies 47

 

[Change at Barnham]

I forgot it was Anzac Day.
That's my morning sorted.

 

[Change at Barnham]

THPP, that was a jump and a half!
What a photo that would be.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

THPP, that was a jump and a half!
What a photo that would be.

Amazing stuff by Elliott Have already been looking for a photo of it!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]